6/24/1895 - Novel of society with BCC in it

MR. HARRISON'S NOVEL Its Characters Taken From Society and Bohemia, and Their Names Given. WITH TRUTH FOR THE MUSE. A Love Story That Will Deal Plainly With San Francisco and Its Lights. William Greer Harrison, Bohemian, athlete, dramatist, poet, essayist, lecturer and underwriter, will soon add the title of novelist to his name. Even now he is burning the midnight oil, and many pages of manuscript have already accumulated. Soon the renown of Jere Lynch and Tom Fitch will be eclipsed and the wide world will be buzzing with the fame of a new novelist. Certainly that portion of the world nominated on the maps of California as the Bay district will buzz, for though in its application and its morale the new tale -.ill be as broad as all humanity, its characters will be local and its scenes laid in San Francisco. Its hero and its heroine, as well as those that contribute to their unhappiness in the middle chapters and to their triumph in the last chapter, will be taken from real life without even the disguise of fanciful names. "My method is to idealize fact," said "Mr. Harrison last evenine when asked to tell something about his latest effort in literature. "But the idealization will stop far short of distortion, I can promise you that.' There was an omen in the words. Though the novel is far advanced, the determination of its title is still in abeyance. abeyance. It may be "Bohemia Unveiled," or "Bohemia as I Have Found It," or "The True Bohemia," or "Society and Bohemia," Bohemia," or it may be none of these. The word "Bohemia" may not appear in the title, but, at all events, there will be no such a lack in its text. "The story will deal with Bohemia," said Mr. Harrison. "It will take the stand that the real life is the life of the Bohemian. The ambitions of the Bohemian are lofty and never reached, hence there is always the happiness of the lofty struggle for better things. The ambitions ambitions of the money-getters are paltry at best, and when satisfied as they, often are, but by the exercise of the meaner faculties—the faculties—the unhappinessand the discontent of satiety follow. "I look at it in another light. In the eyes of the world the Bohemian has no ! ambition. And that is true enough, when you know that all things are relative. The artist's mission is an altruistic one to make j the world better for the life he enjoys. To I the world this is no ambition at all. To | the world Bohemia is without ambition. | And I shall try to show how the life with- j out ambition is the real life. I shall show its freedom from the constraints of Mrs. Grundy, the naturalness of the life and its | greater usefulness to the world. "As to personalities? Oh, I shall shield no one that comes properly within the range of my muse. I shall employ real names. Yon will find Joe Redding in the book, Amadee Joullin, Raphael Weil, Jack Lathrop, John Stanton and lots of others of the real Bohemia. I do not mean the | Bohemian Club, mind you, when I speak ; of Bohemia. "And I am not going to forget Burlingame Burlingame and the Country Club— not unless my plot changes a good deal. I shall try not to be severe, but shall try also to tell the truth as much as one can in a romance. Sarcasm is a good weapon and irony makes the pages bright if handled rightly. "Oh, yes ; It will be a love story. It will have a queen of Bohemia, and what is more a real qneen. She falls in love with the hero, himself a shining light in Bohemia, Bohemia, and in the end they are wed. Yes; all that. "Shall I deal with the conventions of society society ? My dear fellow, the novel will treat of society per se. Perhaps not to the entire entire satisfaction of the elect, but — well, you know, I care but little for criticisms from some quarters. A novel can't .be all sunshine, sunshine, you know; not one that is taken from real life, at any rate. "Do I call it realistic? Well, I am not going down into the slums for my scenes or my characters. But I mean to show Bohemia as it is and society as it is. Nothing Nothing more and nothing less. That would be realism, would it not? "California street, Sansome street, Commercial Commercial street and the residence quarters of the City furnish ample ground for one who has a true story to tell. I shall not go beyond those limits." Perhaps in two months or less the new novel will be on the bookstands. Meanwhile Meanwhile society is in a flutter to know what the new novelist shall say about it, and Bohemia Bohemia is waiting patiently to see its shining shining lights in their new roles. An enterprising enterprising theatrical manager is considering the profit, of its dramatization. And till the daylight dawns the gas burns steadily in the study of .William Greer Harrison, the latest local Admiral Crichtou. '

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